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Public school started again this past week so Elizabeth is gone after 7:45am every morning. Camie, blogger at Camie’s Cozy Corner, commented to me that things are always busy during the summer and slow down a bit in the fall. … Continue reading →

Looking back on the last two weeks, I don’t feel like much formal schooling was done, yet I remind myself that at one point I had considered unschooling and really we’re doing lots of other things outside of the book … Continue reading →

It’s been a long time since I’ve written. After-schooling turned out more to be me killing myself to keep my house at an acceptable level of clean + making dinner + trying to keep the kids clean, and maybe doing homework … Continue reading →

Elizabeth and I wrapped up the farm unit this week, all except one last bit of writing in her journal. It was a fun yet busy week, both around school and in general. On Monday, we made little ‘animalitos.’ The … Continue reading →

We went to my dad’s house the other day for a low-carb dinner and I was going to make something but didn’t, so Elizabeth decided that she wanted to offer something of her own. In retrospect, this is not the … Continue reading →

Animals have definitely been on the fore-front this week, from those that roam the outdoors today, to those that live on farms, all the way to those that lived millions of years ago! It was a wild week! On Wednesday, … Continue reading →

I think, when I look back over this past week, the thing that stands out most in my mind is the countless hours that Elizabeth colored. I personally love to color and colored in my little-kid Disney coloring books through … Continue reading →

Elizabeth spotted a bag of mixed nuts in the shell at our rinky-dink grocery store the other day which carries about nothing interesting – but this was interesting! Unfortunately, we were not having a good day that day, and so I … Continue reading →

May all ready, my toddler is two, and we have almost completed 40 weeks of homeschool! Time goes by so fast! This week, we began a new unit, and because I thought that we could just bang it out, Elizabeth got sick and we did two days worth and that was all. Or rather, we did two days worth of the curriculum activities, but luckily unschooling is always going on around it!

So, we didn’t get much done with the Moving Beyond The Page materials, but we did have fun with food. First, Elizabeth had gotten a new Ranger Rick Jr. magazine last week, and on the last page, it included instructions on how to make a Frog Salad. Does that sound appetizing or what? Well, it didn’t have frog in the list of ingredients, rather it looked like a frog! Originally, I did not have the listed ingredients, and Elizabeth most creatively suggested using other ingredients that we did have on hand instead – such as replacing the lettuce with cabbage and the green apple with regular old red ones. Impressed with her thought process, I agreed, but then we just didn’t get to it, and eventually we got to the store and did purchase the ingredients, so somehow we put it together right.

That’s taking too much credit on my part – I mean to say that Elizabeth put it together per the directions. I washed the produce and cut up that which needed to be cut (I did have to cut about 5 of the feet because she kept dropping and breaking them), but other than that, she put it all together.

Frog Salad, no meat needed!

And though we had olives, which were suggested for the eyes, she decided to make it a Red Eyed Tree Frog rather than a regular old frog, and gave it red tomato eyes instead. My kid, definitely my kid. 🙂

The kids then devoured the thing while I was washing the rest of the veggies for my salad, I didn’t even see it go! It was fun to make, and fun to eat obviously.

Kiwano Melon

After the frog, a Kiwano Melon was tried another day. Follow this link to learn how to eat one of those!

Lastly, on Friday, when Elizabeth was feeling better and we were decided that we would get back to doing school work, she REALLY REALLY wanted to make the volcano that was described in a book my sister brought her back from Florida along with the dragon fruit plant. The book is a DK publication, not always my favorite as they seem to be just a bit…out of the ballpark for reality or something. They are interesting, yet just a bit too over the top or too unavailable or something. But this one, titled Great Things to do Outside: 365 Awesome Outdoor Activities actually is full of stuff that I think we may actually be able to do; the ingredients are readily available for projects, and they are simple enough that I think a child really could do them. I think it will be a book that we’ll use over and over, and we may actually set to doing all of the activities described over the next few years.

Anywho, Elizabeth had found this flashy looking activity that had dinos set up around an erupting volcano. An erupting volcano is like a Disney Channel myth to me on one level, yet I regularly clean with baking soda and vinegar, so pulling it off was not hard at all. Elizabeth has been asking to do the activity for a few weeks now, but I have been to lazy to do it until the weather was a bit nicer and I desired to put my hands into cold dirt – because you know who was the one that had to form the volcano don’t you?! So, while Brother was asleep, we prepped everything, then slipped down to the garden, set it up, and let ‘er bubble over!

Aaaahhhh! It’s burning my leg!

It was pretty fun! It’s still down there, the raccoons are probably gnawing on our dinos right now, who knows? We didn’t get any other school done after that, but oh well!

Share your thoughts: What are some fun activities you have done in the kitchen, or with kitchen items…just not in the actual kitchen?